Setting up a honing guide for sharpening

I’ve been woodworking for 30 years and never realized how sloppy I’ve been about grinding and sharpening until I was asked to teach teenagers how to sharpen here at our school for woodworking in Mexico. After a lot of research I decided to go with the Eclipse honing guide on waterstones and grind to a 25° for both chisels and plane irons. I found two handy articles on an easy way to set up the honing guide, but to set up the honing guide for this angle I get a very different result than what I found in these two articles.

Christopher Schwarz says: The bottom line is that if I put the thinnest plane iron in my honing guide and set it to extend 1-1/2” from the front of the jig, it will sharpen the tool at 30°. If I put the thickest plane iron I have in my shop in the honing guide and set it to extend 1-1/2” from the guide, then it will sharpen the tool at a little more than 31°. Does that matter? No, no and no.The point is that a 1-1/2” projection will return your tool to that same angle every time you sharpen. This will greatly reduce your time on the stones and save abrasive material, steel ….http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog/sharpening-angles-for-dullards

4 replies so far

I have given up on honing guides as I never got good results with them. Instead I have practised hand sharpening with the scary sharp method until I can do it pretty well. Yesterday I sharpened my block plane blade to razor sharp in about 2 minutes.

The Eclipses have been discontinued. The Eclipse clones may not be built to the original dimensions. There may even variability among the clones themselves. This could explain your 1/2 inch difference.

I never thought I could hand sharpen. After giving it a go a few times I now waste little time in keeping blades sharp.My next self training will be grinding. I still have a horrible time even with a jig.